1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to metadata, and more particularly, to an information storage medium for storing metadata to support multiple languages, and systems and methods of processing the metadata.
2. Related Art
Information recording media, for example, digital versatile discs (DVDs), may store contents, such as audio/video (AV) data, and information regarding the contents, i.e., metadata. Examples of metadata include information regarding the title of a movie stored on a disc, information regarding the date of manufacture of the movie, information regarding actors and actresses who starred in the movie, and information regarding the director of the movie. Therefore, a user can easily search for contents with a desired title or contents in which a certain actor or actress starred with reference to metadata.
If metadata is provided in multiple languages, people from different countries can easily search for contents with reference to different versions of the metadata written in the multiple languages. In other words, a user can search for and browse metadata using a language, which he or she can understand. In addition, metadata written in a language other than those languages stored on an information recording medium can also be downloaded, via a network, or can be copied from another memory, for the user's convenience.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an example format of subtitle data 100. Referring to FIG. 1, the subtitle data 100 includes text data 110, which is to be displayed as subtitles, synchronization information 120, which specifies when the text data 110 is to be displayed in synchronization with an AV stream, display region information 130, which specifies where the text data 110 is to be displayed, and display style information 140, which specifies the text data 110 is to be displayed in a specific display style. The display region information 130 may be represented as Region(l, t, w, h) to indicate that the text data 110 is to be displayed in an area which has a width “w” and has a height “h” above a point (l, t). The display style information 140 includes font information, output direction information, and line space information regarding the text data 110 to be displayed in the same area.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an example reproduction apparatus 200 to reproduce subtitle data in synchronization with an AV stream. Referring to FIG. 2, the reproduction apparatus 200 reads subtitle data 100, as shown in FIG. 1, from an information storage medium 210, downloads subtitle data 100 from a server 220, via a network such as the Internet 230, and reproduces both of the subtitle data 100 in synchronization with an AV stream 240. Subtitle data 100 may be stored on the information storage medium in different units from an AV stream 240. In other words, the subtitle data 100, which is to be laid over an image generated by decoding the AV stream 240, may be recorded on the information storage medium separately from the AV stream. In order to provide a user with subtitle data 100 in multiple languages or various types of subtitle data 100, the reproduction apparatus 200 may also download subtitle data 100 from the server 220, via a network such as the Internet 230, and may reproduce the downloaded subtitle data in the same manner as the subtitle data obtained from the information storage medium 210.
As described above, subtitle data 100 read from an information storage medium, or subtitle data 100 downloaded from the server 220, via the Internet 230, as shown, for example, in FIG. 2, can be provided to a user. Metadata, like subtitle data, may be obtained from an information storage medium or from a remote server, via the Internet, as shown, for example, in FIG. 2, and provided to a user. In other words, metadata written in some languages may be recorded in an information storage medium, and metadata written in some other languages may be stored in a remote server, via the Internet, so that they can be downloaded from the information storage medium and the server, via the Internet. However, in conventional methods of expressing metadata that is downloaded via a network, a considerable amount of storage capacity may be wasted in an effort to store the metadata. In addition, in a metadata search, two words written in different languages can be determined to refer to different information even when they may have the same meaning.
Therefore, there is a need for providing metadata in a plurality of different languages that are accessible and updatable, even if memory resources are limited in a reproduction apparatus and/or an information storage medium, such that a user can easily search for contents in a desired language that can be understood. Also needed are techniques to enhance the metadata search, such that multiple words which share the same meaning but are written in different languages, are not mistaken as different metadata.